Finding White on White

CATEGORIES: Design Tip of the Day, Illustrator | Jeff Witchel | February 23, 2007

I was drawing a series of white-Filled shapes with red Strokes of various widths. At a certain point, I decided to apply an Effect to the Strokes of all the shapes. I selected all of the objects (Edit > Select All) and immediately discovered a problem. There was a question mark in the Fill Box of my Tools palette. How could this be? All of the Fills were supposed to be white. Had I inadvertently forgotten to fill some of the shapes? How could I find all of the unfilled shapes quickly without clicking on each object, one at a time?

I could click on any object that IS Filled with white, and go to Select > Same > Fill Color. All the objects that ARE Filled with white would be selected. Then go to Select > Inverse to find the Unfilled culprits. But the fastest way to tell the difference between a white Fill and NO Fill on a white page, is to go to View > Show Grid. Because the Grid is behind all objects, it can’t be seen through Filled objects. So the Unfilled objects (with the Grid showing through) stand out like a sore thumb.

Tip provided by Jeff Witchel, Certified Adobe® Training Provider.

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